Over Time
by RRV
Summary: Sasuke has left the village, but in his absence Sakura learns that he was not her whole world and over time becomes accustomed to a certain redhead. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Intro

**I haven't watched the series in a loooooong time, but I have been and always will be obsessed with this couple. So here's what I wish had happened. Hope you like it.**  
**I don't own any characters. I wish I did though.**

* * *

A pink haired kunoichi was out cold on a park bench where the Uchiha kid had left her. It had been hours later but she still had not stirred.

* * *

The three sand siblings trotted along tired and defeated from a night of drinking. They had come to Konkoha to speak with the Hokage about staying and training. The for a short while. Hokage had agreed and they celebrated with looking for a place to stay and heavy drinking.

"Gaara." Temari called ahead with Kankuro hanging off her shoulder. He had been feeling the heavy affect of drinking and was going green in the face. "I'm going to take Kankuro home."

He simply nodded and continued walking. He had been drinking too, but not nearly as much as his brother. The dizziness didn't bother him too much. He carried on walking the dimly lit park until he sensed another chakra signature off in the distance. He didn't feel like he was in any danger, but as he continued his walk he could feel it drawing closer.

_Do you feel it?_ Gaara called out to Shukaku in his mind.

_**Yeah, but it doesn't feel dangerous. It's probably just some ninja walking in the park, just like you?**_

He shrugged it off and continued walking and started thinking about the training he would be doing. He would like the train with Naruto. They both had demons. Just thinking about the damage they could do fighting each other put a smirk on his face. But his smile quickly faded when the chakra he sensed earlier was within mere meters of himself. He glanced around but saw no one. Looking over toward the path, he saw the backside of a park bench.

His gaze lowered to the space below to see a hand hanging below. His pace to the bench was quick. He saw the kunoichi out cold.

_I know her from somewhere. _

_**She's friends with the Fox-boy. **_

He moved around to the front of the bench and picked up, not bridal style. But threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

**_That's not how you carry a lady._**

_That's not how you carry a lady._ He mocked Shukaku in the nasaliest voice her could muster.

_**HUMPH. **_

Without thinking, he walked home with Sakura still hanging over his shoulder.

The sun was bright in her face. She sat up slowly and winced at the pain in the back of her head where Sasuke had hit her the night before.  
"H-he left me. I told him I loved him and he left." tears were burning in the corners of her eyes and threatened to fall.

"Sakura?" A voice called and Sakura was pulled from her thought. Temari walked out with a tray that held four cups of tea. "Good morning, well afternoon. We all slept in after all the drinking last night."

"We?" Sakura questioned while receiving a cup from Temari.

"Yeah, Gaara, Kankuro and I are going to be staying in Konoha for a while to train."

"Why am I here?"

"I honestly don't know. I came home after walking for a bit to take care of Kankuro. Poor boy can't hold his alcohol. You'll have to ask Gaara." Temari left upstairs to brings the boys their tea.

Sakura looked around, It was a spacious house. Nothing like her little one bedroom apartment. She sipped her tea and waited for Temari to come back.

The first to come downstairs was Kankuro who fell with a couple loud thuds followed by even louder cursing. He stood up rubbing his face and ass simultaneously.

Sakura tried her best not to laugh, but she couldn't contain it well enough and a giggle slipped out.

"Ha ha it's real fu-" He stopped himself when he had realized that it wasn't Temari who was laughing at him, but Sakura. "Hey, I remember you. What are you doing here?"

Sakura shrugged. "I don't know. Last I remember I was at the park pleading with sa-" She cut herself off. "I mean walking around when someone knocked me out."

Kankuro seemed suspicious of her words, but the bright sunlight was making his hangover worse. He moved to close the curtains when Temari came back down and Gaara following.

"Now you can ask him for yourself. " Temari Stepped out of the way to let Sakura face Gaara.

"Did you bring me here?"

"I did. You were out cold on a bench in the park." his eyes squinted. "Kankuro hurry up and shut those." Kankuro did as he was told, even though he was going to do it anyway.

"But why did you bring me here?"

"I don't know where you live, and you weren't safe where you were. So I thought I would help you."

Sakura's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink and she did her best to hide it behind a curtain of her hair. "Oh, well, Thank you. But I should be getting home now." She stood up and handed the half empty cup back to Temari and thanking her before walking out the front door.

* * *

**So there's the first chapter. Just a start. I would like a Beta reader for this. I do plan to make it a long one. If you're interested, let me know :)**


	2. Training begins

**So here's the second chapter. Hope you like it.**

* * *

Sakura felt embarrassed, She pleaded with Sasuke to stay with her. She offered to help him. She tried her best. But it wasn't good enough. And she hated that. She despised that fact that her best efforts failed. She was weak, she felt it weighing her down. The emotional weakness and the physical weakness.

Well she'd had enough of feeling like she couldn't do anything. She was going to train. She lifted her head up as she walked home. She wasn't going to start today. Today is diet cheat day. She wasn't giving that up.

* * *

Sakura had woken up early and started off with a run. Her hair was back in a ponytail and instead of her usual attire, she put on a red top and black ninja pants.

Her pace started slow and her mind kept running over the past events. The way she could never spar with Sasuke or Naruto because she wasn't strong enough, the way Sasuke talked down on her for being weak. She couldn't stop him from leaving. Her pace quickened as her anger motivated her to push herself and run faster. She had been so focused on increasing her speed, she hadn't seen any of the other ninjas who came to the training grounds. She didn't care about anything else except getting stronger.

She didn't know how long she'd been running for when a wall of sand had appeared right in front of her.  
She crashed through the hard wall and flipped a couple times before hitting the ground.

She sat up with a couple 'ows' and looked up to see Gaara.

"Oh, H-hello." She stood up quickly. "You know, there are other ways to get my attention."

He smirked and it caused a bit of un-ease in her. "This one way was more fun."

"Well, if that's all, I'm going to get back to running." Turning to leave she was stopped by his hand on her arm.

"Sakura, why were you unconscious on a park bench." His voice had a trace of...worry? His eyes did too.

"I was just walking in the park and someone knocked me out."

**_She's lying._** Shukaku stirred.

"Sakura, just tell me the truth." He felt concerned for her. He knew she was weak, mentally and physically.

She looked like she was about to cry. "Sasuke-kun left last night. He knocked me out and left me on the bench. I begged him not to leave. I told him that I would help him avenge his family. I sounded like an idiot." Her hands were trembling. "I was weak."

He felt for her. He didn't care for the Uchiha kid. He was an ass hole. He betrayed his own village for revenge. If the Uchiha came back, Gaara would take him out himself.

"So I'm training harder. I will be stronger and smarter. Now if you'll excuse me." She gave him a small bow and took off running again.  
He watched her take off and decided to watch her for a bit. She was so focused on being better. Her face was red and her hair was falling from her ponytail. She looked like she was going to pass out. He smirked at her dedication. He sat up in one of the trees hanging over the path, watching her run by every couple of minutes. She hadn't looked away from her training once.

Awhile later she began to feel tired, so she slowed her pace and kept it for a few more hours.

About four hours later, her body felt heavy and slowed her pace to a walk with her arms over her head and walked for another 20 minutes to cool down. She was just about to head home when she felt someone next to her and jumped a couple feet away.

"Hehe, did I scare you Sakura-chan?"

"Naruto!" She greeted him with a fist to the face. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Ooooow, Sorry!" He rubbed his head. "Here." He handed her a bottle of water. "I stopped at your apartment but you weren't there. Have you been here all day?"

"Yeah." She took a few gulps and wiped her mouth. "I'm going to be stronger. I can't keep being weak."

"Yeah, I guess. Just don't over do it. Anyway, Me and Kakashi-sensei talked to the Hokage today about Sasuke. They classified him as a traitor to the village. So if he ever comes back, They're going to arrest him."

"Good." She don't know how she had felt so much love for Sasuke, he was a heartless bastard. He didn't care about anything other killing his brother. She was sweet and kind to him everytime she had seen him. But he always treated her like she was nothing, like she wasn't worth a minute of his time. She took another swig and started walking home. "I'll see you later Naruto."

"Bie Sakura-chan!"

Naruto ran off in another direction while she slowly made her way home. Tomorrow was going to be another long day of training.

* * *

Sakura had woken up early and hit the books.

The day continued on going between chakra exercises and practicing simple jutsus. She'd managed a couple tricks like making a ball of her chakra in her hands, and flowing chakra through each finger tip all together and then each individually.

Her phone had been ringing off the hook assuming it was friends wondering if she was all right after Sasuke had left. She'd turned the ringer volume down as low as possible to avoid the distraction, but the constant ringing kept bugging her. She decided her best bet for total concentration was to be in a quiet area and packed a couple jutsu scrolls, a chakra control scroll and water.

She locked her door and marched off into the woods. She had not noticed the person standing on the other end of the long hallway.

Sakura made her way through town towards the forest. The entire time, she felt as if someone was following her. She could not sense anyone's chakra and if it were a civilian following her she wouldn't have a problem seeing them since they had no skill in sneaking around. She shrugged it off when she reached the wood and a large tree to sit beneath.

She was doing her chakra finger exercises when someone jumped down from the tree above and landed gracefully on the ground in front of her.

* * *

**So there's chapter 2. Anyway, hope you like it so far. I'm trying to make the chapters longer, but I just want to get the story out to my readers quickly.**

**Also, I'd like to thank Falynn1993 for leaving the first review. I'm so giddy I feel like toddler on Christmas.**


	3. Apprenticeship

**You guys have no idea how giddy I get when I get an email saying someone started following or liked my story.**  
**Also I'll be moving from Arizona to Michigan on October 1st. It's going to take about three days and I'm going to try to get a couple more chapters done before then.**

**No Promises.**

* * *

"Lady Tsunade!" Sakura jumped up to hug the woman before her. "I heard you were going to become the next Hokage!"

"I am, Next month." She gave the pink haired girl a sweet smile. "I heard what happened with Sasuke, and Gaara told me what he had done to you."  
Sakura's smile dropped.

_Ohhh Gaara, you're going to pay for that._

"Sakura, he isn't worth you're time. And I'm going to prove that to you. I want you to be my student. I'm going to train you and you will see that you don't need him."

Her eyes brightened again. "Really?!"

"Of course, I see so much potential in you. Now, let me see your exercises again."

Sakura did as she was told and began to push her chakra into her finger tips, each one emitting a green glow.

"That's really good, how long have you been practicing?" She tapped one finger as an indication to do that one alone.

"Since this morning." She pushed a little chakra into that finger.

"What? No way." She tapped another.

"Yeah, I guess I have a knack for it." She pushed into that finger.

"That's amazing chakra control for only one day. Come on, you don't need to study here. We can use the library in the Hokage tower."

"No way! There are so many books there! So many things to read and learn about!" Sakura felt the excitement building up.

They headed towards the tower when Tsunade tuned up.

"So Sakura, Tell me, why were you so in love with the Uchiha boy? Kakashi told me everything about him. He sounds like an asshole."

She sighed heavily. "Well you know, he's dark, mysterious, good looking. And I know that deep down in is heart he really is a good person." Not a second passed after she finished her sentence before Tsunade smacked the back of her head.

"Sakura, I'm going to tell you fight now. You and I both know that he will never be a good person. He left the village to be train by Orichimaru. He is a traitor and a criminal. He's not worth anyone's time anymore. Got it?"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade."

"And none of that Lady Tsunade. I am your teacher now. You will call me Tsunade-sama. "

Sakura mustered the loudest sigh she could. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh yes Tsunade-SAMA." Which earned her another smack to the back of the head.

"Keep that up and you're going get plenty more of those."

Sakura mumbled something under her breath along the lines of old woman but Tsunade still heard it and gave her another smack.

"Jeeze woman!" Sakura rubbed the back of her head furiously.

"You know that if you push chakra into you ears, you can hear anything."

Sakura said nothing this time but instead grumbled.

When they arrived at the Library, Sakura was in awe. Thousands of books and scrolls everywhere; lining the shelves and lying around on table and chairs. It was a wonderland of knowledge.

"When do we start Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked to excited to look away.

"Not today, I've got some things to discuss with the Hokage. How about next week? I've only got a couple things to do. But after that, I wont be able to train you to till after I've become Hokage."

"Can I stay for a bit and read? I've only got a couple generic scrolls on chakra control and if I could borrow some I could practice them until next week." Sakura sounded overwhelmingly hopeful.

"I guess, but you can't take them out of the building, you'll have to stay here if you want to read." Tsunade looked to her side to see that Sakura was no longer standing there. She was already pulling a couple books from one of the shelves.

Tsunade sighed and left the girl to read.

* * *

Sakura lost track of time in her reading. Her shoes laid next to her and her hair was in a messy ponytail. She had practiced a couple more techniques and mastered her the finger technique making different patterns in her finger tips. She also figured out how make her self jump a little higher by pushing chakra into her feet.

"Miss Haruno?" A voice called from the door way.

"Yes?" Sakura looked up to see a cleaning lady.

"Everyone else has gone home now and we need to clean."

"Oh, all right. Sakura grabbed her shoes and jumped to her feet and made her way out of the building and headed home. She'd had a great day of learning new things and she hadn't even began learning from Lady Tsunade, and if the rumors she heard from Jiraiya-sama and the other jonin were correct, she was a master at chakra control. She was looking forward to next week, but for the next couple of days, she was allowed to be alone in the library.

She looked at her watch, the time read 2234

"I was in the library for 8 hours? No wonder I'm so hungry." Her stomach grumbled on cue and she quickened her pace home to eat and get some rest to be ready for the next day.

* * *

A few days later.

* * *

Sakura had been waiting in the training area for Tsunade. The blonde approached slowly with one hand on her head and another holding a bottle of tea.

"Tsunade-sama? Where have you been? You were supposed to be three hours ago!"

"Yeah, I know. Could you not yell? I'm really hung-over." She sat down in the shade under a large tree. "So, what all did you learn from the library? Just show me everything."

"Um, all right." Sakura then went through most of what she could remember, from the finger tricks, to jumping to impossibly high branches. Even breaking a rock

Tsunade couldn't keep her surprise hidden. "You learned all that just from the books?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama. But I was wondering, what exactly are you going to train me in?"

"You're going to be a med nin. I've never seen someone with such control after so little time and practice. You're a natural in chakra control, and most of them become medics. I'm going to teach you how to heal with you're chakra."

"Really? A med nin? I never thought about that. I mean, I know I'm not a very good fighter. I guess that works perfectly for me. Teach me the way of the med nin Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade threw a scroll that hit her in the center of the forehead.

"Shut up with that 'teach me' bull. Now come over and sit down."

Sakura obeyed with a new red mark-soon to be bruise in the center of her forehead. She sat next to the older woman who pulled out a scroll and began teaching.

* * *

With the sand siblings.

* * *

"Gaara! Kankuro! Breakfast is ready!" Temari called upstairs.

They had completed their training scheduled for that morning and took a break to eat and wash up before classes in the afternoon.  
Gaara was the first down in plain ninja pants and a red shirt. "Kankuro just got in the shower."

Temari sat across from Gaara and began eating. ""So, did you hear the Uchiha was classified as a traitor? If he ever comes back, they're going to arrest him."

"Yeah. Naruto told me all about it."

"Lady Tsunade is going to become Hokage next month too. And while I was waiting to speak with the Hokage the other day, I saw Sakura in the Library. Plus some nins around the town have been talking. I guess Sakura is going to be her apprentice and Lady Tsunade is going to train her herself. I heard they start today."

Looks like she's going to get the proper training she needs. Gaara thought to himself.

**_You know we could always train her too._** Shukaku piped up.

_And what exactly would we teach her? _

**_The art of love making of course! _**

Gaara closed his eyes and could see shukaku performing a stupid dance in response to his own joke.

Gaara shook the thought from his and continued to eat. He had an afternoon of classes ahead of him, one being the entire history of Konoha scheduled to last 5 hours.

This was going to suck.

* * *

**So there's chapter 3! Hope it was long enough. If I don't have the next chapter done before I leave, here's my 'Sorry' 'ahead' of time.**

**Time - Sorry**

**Get it? haha.**

**Someone laugh.**


	4. AN Apology

Hi guys, so, while trying to put a mod on my computer, I got a virus that inabled almost everything on my computer. I would like to apologize because all of my stoties are now gone. I will get to writing as soon as my computer is working again.


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